


Flashbacks

by caleedc



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Dark, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25854529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caleedc/pseuds/caleedc
Summary: Hirai Momo has two loves in the world: 1) Myoui Mina, and 2) her camera
Relationships: Hirai Momo/Myoui Mina
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Flashbacks

**Author's Note:**

> Please read at your own risk. This is not a [FLUFF] One Shot.
> 
> \-----  
> Rest by Yerin Baek for your listening pleasure.
> 
> Thank you for the warm reception, Mimo nation! Here's to our angsty but lovable pair, Mina & Momo.   
> Hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing. This is actually one of my favorite works.

> _“Your sleepless nights aren’t going to stop until you accept the fact that she’s never coming back.”_

I ran my hand over the mosaic of pictures tacked above the bed. Polaroids in full color, some overexposed, some dimly lit, but all perfect with a story in them. I could vividly recall each moment as my fingers grazed each glossy image.

**[POLAROID 1]**

> _“Mina, will you hold still please? The picture’s not going to turn out good if you keep moving.”_
> 
> _“Really? Because last I checked all my pictures came out great.”_
> 
> _Momo stifled a laugh behind the camera. “That’s true. You’re always beautiful.”_
> 
> _The moment Mina heard the compliment, she began to blush and reflexively smile. That’s when Momo clicked the shutter._
> 
> _“Your pictures come out great because I know what to capture.” Momo spoke with exuberance. “This one’s going to come out a great candid.” She removed the developing Polaroid and fanned herself with it, pleased at herself for capturing Mina’s best candids and angles._
> 
> _“Are we done? Can we order food now? I’m hungry.” Mina pouted at their empty table._
> 
> _“Right, right. Sorry. We’re done, yeah.” Momo called the attention of a server._

I winced at the memory. That was our anniversary dinner, and I wish I could have taken more photos of her that night, but she insisted we spend the rest of the evening without any gadgets or distractions. Just me and her.

I looked at her that night with longing and love, how a woman like her could be so giving and kind, so patient and loving. I wish I could have done more to show I appreciated her.

My eyes moved onto another Polaroid, the one below it. One of my favorite pictures of her: sleeping.

****

**[POLAROID 2]**

> _“If you keep taking pictures of me while I’m asleep, you’re sleeping on the sofa tonight, Hirai Momo.”_
> 
> _“Just one more, please?” Momo tugged the blanket covering Mina’s face._
> 
> _The younger girl was far too tired to argue. She simply groaned and dozed off._
> 
> _Momo hovered over their bed carefully and captured Mina at an angle where the bed light illuminated her face ever-so gently, and accentuated her strong features: her perfectly symmetrical face dotted by her beauty marks, regal nose, and pouted lips. Momo’s eyes focused on the lips, so soft that she wanted to kiss right then and there. She snapped a picture, and hurriedly set down the camera on the bedside table._
> 
> _“Scoot aside, it’s cold.” Momo spooned from behind Mina and snuggled under the sheets with her. Her arm found its way around Mina’s waist, and the latter reflexively retreated into Momo’s body, both of them fitting perfectly in each other. Momo lay still, savoring the warmth, and her arm locked tighter around Mina’s waist._
> 
> _“What are you doing?” Mina mumbled. “I’m not going anywhere.” Her hand rested over Momo’s._
> 
> _Instead of answering, Momo simply buried her face in the crook between Mina’s neck and shoulder where it smelled of jasmine and freshly laundered clothes. Momo’s thoughts flitted from Mina’s warmth and her voice until her dreams mirrored the same image._

I sat down on the bed for a minute, overwhelmed by the strong wave of emotions I felt after recalling the memory. My hands pressed against the mattress, the very bed we shared for years. There was nothing better than sleeping next to her. I still kept her favorite pillow, and it still smells of vanilla, like her.

‘I miss you.’

****

**[POLAROID 3]**

> _Momo hurriedly fidgeted with her camera as Mina stood beside her, watching with sullen eyes._
> 
> _“Momo, can we not do this now? I just want to get home.” Annoyance tinged her voice, but Momo was too distracted._
> 
> _“Hold on, this’ll just be quick.” Momo flipped a few more buttons and settings and started snapping away at the downpour falling from the 9 o’clock evening sky._
> 
> _Mina said nothing more but her arm latched onto Momo’s arm weakly. Momo shrugged it off. “Don’t. I’m losing my angle.”_
> 
> _“Forget it. I’m getting a cab. I’ll see you at home.”_
> 
> _Thunder crackled overhead._
> 
> _“Okay. Text me when you get home.” Momo was still fixated on her camera, and didn’t even turn to look at Mina who had a disappointed look on her now-pallid face._

I was angry at myself and my chest pounded. I grit my teeth at the sight of that Polaroid. It was a blurry shot of street lights and car taillights, smudged by the heavy rain, and I mistreated her when I should have paid more attention to her. All for a stupid picture.

****

**[POLAROID 4]**

> _“You want me to stand where? I’m not very good at this.” Mina laughed heartily._
> 
> _“It’s okay, just climb up another step and that’ll be good. Now smile for the camera. Okay, not too big of a smile. A little more demure. Yeah, there that’s it. Now tilt your head a little to the left and look away.”_
> 
> _A few more shots and Momo lowered her camera, wiping her forehead glazed with sweat. “Sorry that took so long. But thanks for being really patient with me, Mina.” Momo reached out a hand to help Mina off of the steps._
> 
> _“You’re welcome. It’s my pleasure to help out a photographer.”_
> 
> _“Photographer-in-the-making, you mean.” Momo corrected. “I’m a long way from actually calling myself one.”_
> 
> _Mina laughed, her eyes disappearing into crescent slits as her heart-shaped lips parted to show her glistening teeth. Momo caught her breath at the sight, thinking she should have captured this moment instead. “Well, then consider me your first supporter. Don’t forget me when you make it big, yes?”_
> 
> _Momo felt her cheeks warming at the compliment. “Definitely. A model like you doing ratty shoots with a nobody like me? I definitely won’t forget you. This is enough to boost my portfolio by at least two notches, for sure.”_
> 
> _Mina nodded. “It was really nice to meet you, Momo. I hope this isn’t the last project we’ll be doing. It was fun to shoot with you. I honestly think you’re going to make it big one day.”_
> 
> _“Please, enough with the underserved praise. But I will try my hardest, you can count on it. I’ll ask you for a shoot the day they ask me to do editorial. I want you to be my model for that milestone, too. In the meantime, could you pose one more time? I just want to take one on my Polaroid.”_

The first time we met was when I was sporting a measly point-and-shoot camera, one I bought with my hard-earned cash from working on production sets. I got to know her through one of the production directors from my last shoot for a commercial film. I told him I needed a test-model to build my portfolio.

I didn’t know he would send an angel of a model.

I also didn’t know that my next shoot with her wouldn’t take years after.

It happened a week after our first shoot. She pitched me to a creative director and called me in to assist an editorial shoot. It wasn’t _my_ editorial shoot but it did happen, and it was with her. Months passed and I became a frequent name to assist at Mina’s photoshoots for multiple clients. She literally was an angel – she helped me get a foothold on my photography career.

****

**[POLAROID 5]**

> _“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”_
> 
> _“Wha-“_
> 
> _“Good morning, my love. Happy birthday.”_
> 
> _Mina sat up out of bed and glanced at the clock. “Momo, it’s 4 in the morning.”_
> 
> _“Yes, but it’s 4 in the morning of your birthday.” Momo said, holding the candle-lit cake in front of Mina’s drowsy face._
> 
> _“You didn’t have to.” Mina fake-pouted and held Momo’s face in her hands. “But thank you. You are the sweetest ever.”_
> 
> _Momo set down the cake on the bedside table. “That isn’t even the best part yet.”_
> 
> _Mina folded her arms over her chest and waited. “Really?”_
> 
> _Momo reached under the bed and pulled out a packet inside a creased brown bag. She carefully pulled it out and placed it on Mina’s lap._
> 
> _“Oh my god, Momo.”_
> 
> _“Yeah.”_
> 
> _It was a magazine with Mina on the cover. Momo’s photo of Mina._
> 
> _The photo from their very first paid, professional shoot after they first met – when Momo was barely a photographer, just a kid with a camera._
> 
> _“Who published this?”_
> 
> _“It doesn’t matter. I don’t think it does. What matters is that this is you. It’s yours and mine. It’s our accomplishment.” Momo pointed to her and then at Mina. “Happy birthday. I love you.”_
> 
> _“I love you more.”_

Beaten-up camera, awful shoot conditions, X-deal arrangement.

Still, she showed up and treated the schedule like a Vogue editorial; treated me like I was a professional; treated the shoot like a six-figure paying stint. Even if it wasn’t all of that.

She still came through.

I was never going to forget that. Seeing that picture of her with the magazine in her hands was like seeing our most prized achievement, our baby. Something we worked hard on, something we never thought would become anything of importance to anyone else apart from the both of us.

****

**[POLAROID 6]**

> _“This one was two years ago on that cable car. Do you remember? And this one…your birthday dinner at our favorite barbecue place downtown…and another of your street photos. You always looked happy taking photos down empty streets.”_
> 
> _Mina smiled weakly and placed a hand over Momo’s._
> 
> _Momo was cut short, dropping all of the Polaroids on the bed, over Mina’s blanketed lap. She lowered her head and began to cry._
> 
> _She took Mina’s hand and held it in hers, putting it to her cheek._
> 
> _The rhythmic beeping of the machine in the background angered Momo. Everything in the room was out of place and it upset her. She wanted to throw it all out but it was what kept Mina breathing._
> 
> _“My favorite will always be the first one.” Mina was barely audible, but Momo managed to hear, and she perked up at the strength to speak._
> 
> _Momo felt crying harder, headache coming on. “No, stop…stop talking, you’ll get tired. Just…I know that it’s your favorite. It’s in the middle of all the pictures above the bed…When we get home you’ll see it.” Momo was stuttering, trying to find the right words. “I set it up and everything will be there. You’ll see all the pictures and you’ll love it. It’s all your pictures. The bad and good ones, the candid ones you don’t like but I love.” Her breathing hitched, “Mina, just save your strength…so we can go home…”_
> 
> _Mina simply nodded._
> 
> _The machine beeped louder and paced quicker._
> 
> _Minutes later Mina was being wheeled out of the room and Momo was left sobbing in an empty, sterile ward._

It takes a camera shutter a fraction of a second to capture a shot, but it takes all but a moment to remember everything important to you – everything flashes before you as if it were only yesterday.

You take photos to preserve moments, and to preserve people.

You look back at the pictures to remember how much you cared, how much you loved, and how much you lived.

You keep pictures to remember them – every day.

**“If you want to know what a person fears losing the most, pay attention to what they take pictures of.”**


End file.
